mash
/mæʃ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms mashes mashing mashed
- noun (uncountable) A mass of mixed ingredients reduced to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; a mass of anything in a soft pulpy state.
- noun (brewing) Ground or bruised malt, or meal of rye, wheat, corn, or other grain (or a mixture of malt and meal) steeped and stirred in hot water for making the wort.
- noun (chiefly UK) Mashed potatoes.
- noun A mixture of meal or bran and water fed to animals.
- noun (obsolete) A mess; trouble.
- verb (transitive) To convert into a mash; to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure “We had fun mashing apples in a mill.”
- verb (transitive) In brewing, to convert (for example malt, or malt and meal) into the mash which makes wort, by mixing it with hot water.
- verb (transitive, UK, chiefly Northern England, Lancashire, Yorkshire) To prepare a cup of tea in a teapot; to brew (tea).
- verb (ambitransitive) To press down hard (on).
- verb (transitive, Southern US, informal) To press.
- verb (intransitive, archaic) To act violently.
- verb (transitive, informal, gaming) To press (a button) rapidly and repeatedly.
- noun (obsolete) A mesh.
- verb To flirt, to make eyes, to make romantic advances.
- noun (obsolete) An infatuation, a crush, a fancy.
- noun (obsolete) A dandy, a masher.
- noun (obsolete) The object of one’s affections (regardless of sex).
- noun (countable, MLE, slang) A gun.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
pomate firearm gat gun iron piece squash crush squelch squeeze chat up flirt dally butterfly coquet coquette romance philander grind crunch bray comminute
Etymology
From Middle English mash, from Old English mǣsċ, māsċ, māx, from Proto-Germanic *maiskaz, *maiskō (“mixture, mash”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyǵ-, *meyḱ- (“to mix”). Akin to German Meisch, Maische (“mash”), (compare meischen, maischen (“to mash, wash”)), Swedish mäsk (“mash”), and to Old English miscian (“to mix”). See mix.
From Middle English mashen, maschen, meshen, from Old English *māsċan, *mǣsċan, from Proto-Germanic *maiskijaną. Cognate with German maischen. Compare also Middle Low German meskewert, mēschewert (“beerwort”).
See mesh.
Either by analogy with mash (“to press, to soften”), or more likely from Romani masha (“a fascinator, an enticer”), mashdva (“fascination, enticement”). Originally used in theater, and recorded in US in 1870s. Either originally used as mash, or a backformation from masher, from masha. Leland writes of the etymology:
: It was introduced by the well-known gypsy family of actors, C., among whom Romany was habitually spoken. The word “masher” or “mash” means in that tongue to allure, delude, or entice. It was doubtless much aided in its popularity by its quasi-identity with the English word. But there can be no doubt as to the gypsy origin of “mash” as used on the stage. I am indebted for this information to the late well-known impresario [Albert Marshall] Palmer of New York, and I made a note of it years before the term had become at all popular.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A mesh. [Obs.]
- noun A mass of mixed ingredients reduced to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; a mass of anything in a soft pulpy state.
- noun A mixture of meal or bran and water fed to animals.
- verb To convert into a mash; to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; to bruise; to crush; as, to mash apples in a mill, or potatoes with a pestle. Specifically (Brewing), to convert, as malt, or malt and meal, into the mash which makes wort. Mashing tub, a tub for making the mash in breweries and distilleries; --called also mash tun, and mash vat.
Etymology [Akin to G. meisch, maisch, meische, maische, mash, wash, and prob. to AS. miscian to mix. See Mix.]
Etymology [Akin to G. meischen, maischen, to mash, mix, and prob. to mischen, E. mix. See 2d Mash.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mash”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details